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Topic: Potential Expansion Draft Rules (Read 9036 times)

The NHL discussed potential expansion rules with the GMs at their annual meetings today. Friedman outlines them in his latest 30 Thoughts:

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The choice is three defencemen and seven forwards OR eight skaters of any makeup. One expansion team means you can only lose one player. Two means two players. Anyone with fewer than three years of professional experience is exempt. You don’t have to worry about losing them.

The issue of NMC's hasn't been decided yet, Friedman touches on that too. In the CBA it only specifically mentions being able to block a trade, waivers, or a loan, so I would guess that they won't apply here. Depends on how hard the PA wants to fight it.

As Friedman also mentions, the biggest change from these rules to the past rules is that teams will likely only be able to protect 1 goalie instead of 2. That'll probably be the biggest challenge for teams to figure out.

Some other tidbits of note - the league expects to announce its decision on expansion before the draft this June, the Quebec group is concerned about the drop in the value of the dollar in relation to their bid (from their perspective, not just the league's), and should there be an expansion draft, it would happen June 2017.

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"Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Another thing to consider and that I haven't seen around is that you'd assume that any expansion team would still have to hit the cap floor, right? So if the cap is 74 million and the floor is near 58 then either an expansion team would be inclined to take some bad contracts back or spend a ton in free agency.

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Give a man the reputation of an early riser and he can sleep 'til noon-Mark Twain

Take the Stanley Cup defending champion Chicago Blackhawks. If the expansion draft is held in the summer of 2017, they would likely want to protect Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook, Niklas Hjalmarsson and maybe prospect Trevor van Riemsdyk.

But that would mean they could safeguard only four forwards, with Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Artemi Panarin and Teuvo Teravainen the possible options.

Other teams, with more rising talent, could have even tougher choices. If the Washington Capitals want to protect four defencemen, for example, would they lose Marcus Johansson or T.J. Oshie up front?

Plenty of teams also have two decent options in goal. What would the Pittsburgh Penguins do with a choice between Marc-André Fleury (who will be 32 by then) and rising star Matt Murray (nearly a decade younger)?

And what will be the impact of no-movement clauses.

A team with five solid defencemen could move one for a quality forward, for example, then protect four D and that newcomer.

“There are going to be a ton of trades prior to the draft,” one team said on Wednesday.

The salary cap has added a lot more wrinkles to this process. The NHL is expected to force teams to expose at least 25 per cent of their salaries from the previous season, meaning it can’t be all players making the league minimum.

Some teams might use the draft as an opportunity to clear unwanted salary, as the Vegas team would likely have plenty of space to assume an overpriced-but-useful veteran.

Taken as a whole, it could mean roster chaos in the narrow window between the 2017 Stanley Cup final and free agency, depending on when an expansion draft would be held.